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Offbeat History: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835, Part 1

2020-03-19 | 🔗

This offbeat 2015 episode covers a series of 1835 news articles about some utterly mind-blowing discoveries made by Sir John Herschel about the lunar surface. The serial had everything: moon poppies, goat-like unicorns, lunar beavers and even bat people.

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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Do you need help affording Lily insulin, cost savings. Options are available through the Lily diabetes solution centre more at lily dot com, one nineteen sixty one, on the side of a dark highway, Betty Barney Hill caught lights in the sky Lever believe it there's no became internationally known. Some took it, as fact others thought it was. A fantasy But what really happened? That September night in World New Hampshire join me Toby ball. For the inaugural season of strange arrivals, people co production to heart radio in grim and mild from errand Maggie, stranger rivals, Tadeusz March thirty: first, listen! I heart! Radio at apple pie casts or wherever you get your pack cast. Everybody here is an episode from our ten episode, playlists that were calling
beat history yeah we're adding this too, are our regular publishing schedule as one kind of big drop all at the same time on March nineteenth, and that is southern, that you Baby have a little bit of extra entertainment options available to you, particularly if you are self quarantined or sheltering welcome to stuff. You missed in history class, a production. I hardly need the level among under the partner. I'm calling try and I pray Tee Wilson and love a good hope story, so that there is actually a new series that we're going to talk about. Today. We have the kind of air quote. The word news, but it's an important landmark injured, wisdom, history as well as cultural history. It also involves the history of mass media and even sort of a lesson in gullibility unkind of crowd, mentality
This is a topic that the memory palace actually did a short episode on beckoned twenty ten, and that episode is called the moon in the sun in its worth a listen. It is a brief, but very enjoyable. So conspiracy theories and cartoons, like Tex, reads the cat that eighty people aside, you remember that cartoon Tracy I deny it was about a cat who hated people. He lived in New York City, and so he got himself on Iraq it to the moon, so he could be alone and enjoy it. But of course the moon was full of crazy things that made him just as annoyed. His earth Even more so so I said that he figured out a way to get back to earth and even though New York did not treat him while he was very happy, but we know that in fact that is fallacious information and the moon is basically pretty empty. There are some things they are, but not crazy horn people, as shown in that cartoon walking around, but in eighteen thirty, five New York NEWS
Bert printed. A series of stories about amazing discoveries on the lunar landscape band. We are first, talk at length about the incredible descriptions of the amazing things that were allegedly seen on the lunar surface through a tell us go up. I noticed during my research about this new series. Is that the articles and again there are six of them in their very lengthy. Kind of get summarize to this point, where it's like two to five sentences about each one. Maybe in some don't even covered vat. You lose a lot of the amazing and sometimes crazy descriptions of these discoveries, so tracy. My are actually gonna walk through the text with a lot more description, we're gonna break down a lot more of it, and that makes this a two part or because there is a lot to talk about, even though we're not covering everything in that quote historical account, because that would take
Ours is still going to take quite a bit of time, and so this first part we're going to talk a lot about those those entries in the New York Sun. The second part of this two parter will wrap up the account as it was published in serial form and then we'll talk about kind of the reception. These claims gotten sort of the atmosphere of the culture at the time and how that sort of it enabled and provided a fertile ground for this hoax to happen. So before the theory of began, the small teaser appeared in the New York Sun, and that was on Friday August twenty first eighteen, thirty five and the subtleties teaser red quote. We have just learnt from an eminent publisher in this city that Sir John Herschel at the Cape of good hope, has made some astronomical discoveries of the most wonderful description by means of an immense telescope of an entirely new principle
the city you that was being reference than that sentence was Edinburgh yeah, that was, it was placed again. It was a tiny little teaser and it was placed as those it was put there by the Edinburgh current Now the first entry in the series appeared in the paper on Tuesday August- twenty fifth still, eighteen, thirty, five, so a few days later, so that that little teaser had been allowed to sit for a bit and it was titled COS. Great astronomical discoveries lately made by Sir John Herschel, L, L, E, F R S at the cape of good hope from the supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science, Sir John, show is not an entirely new name on the pod cast. We mentioned him as the nephew of Caroline Herschel and our episode on astronomy, sender, Ella, yeah, well, reference, Caroline, very briefly, towards the end of the second episode, but this article. This first entry ran on the front page of the New York Sun, and it took up about seventy five percent of the front page,
and opened with this. In this unusual addition to our journal, we have the happiness of making known to the british public and thence to the whole civilised world recent governments in astronomy, which will build and imperishable monument to the age in which we live and confer upon the present generation of the human race, a proud distinction through all future time and again their placing this as though it had been. These were notes to the Edinburgh Journal of Science, that were then being reprinted in New York. It goes on to build up the announcement before making it an it describes the awe of such of discovery and how it makes us earthbound creatures feel almost like. We suddenly have supernatural powers Herschel, as described in setting up his stupendous apparatus, which was as new telescope
which was quote a vast dimensions and entirely new principle, and then he is described as pausing for several hours before looking through it, so that he could collect himself and prepare for the discoveries that he was about to me yeah. The article assured the reader at this point that Herschel was right to do so, because the things that he saw in his first hour of observation are incomparable in the way in which their they're going to advance human knowledge, his telescope, the art, said rendered his view of objects on the lunar surface, quote fully equal to that which the naked eye commands of terrestrial objects at the distance of a hundred yards. An important thing to note at this point is that the article title makes it sort of sound like it was real
by Sir John Herschel, but the actual entry is written as introduced from the point of view of the newspaper reported to them through Doktor Andrew Grant, and that's how the New York son described as an assistant to the Furthermore, the son, a sure, readers that the notes that grant had shared with the publication were almost as thorough as thorough as theirs of Herschel himself. After true. The articles then are free as being written by Andrew Grant himself said the rest the August twenty fifth entry went on to describe in great detail, Herschels telescope and the rest for this lengthy description- and I mean it is in great detail according to this article is that quote a knowledge of the one is essential to the credibility of the other, so they they're kind of setting it up.
Once readers understand how amazing this telescope is, then they won't for a second doubt its ability to see these things that no one else had previously seen. It claimed that this apparatus was twenty four feet in diameter or seven point three metres, and this would have made it six times the size of the scout. The telescope that his father, William Herschel, had built two makes a modern comparisons. The Hubble telescope is fourteen feet, or Four point three metres and Diana diameter. The grand telescope yo can areas and the canary islands, which is currently the biggest optic telescope on earth, is thirty four feet or ten point four metres in diameter. So those basically claiming that this telescope was was huge huge, even comparison to other telescopes of today.
Oh yeah and at this point remember their sort of building on this idea in other their referencing, William Herschel. Who at that point was a very well known astronomer. The discovery of Uranus had happened in the recent past, and so it they're kind of building scientific credibility by referencing him and talking about his son is advancing Telescopic technologies, Much more and apparently this new telescope with it there they were describing, which was report.
It is weighing nearly seven tonnes, also possessed a hydro oxygen microscope, so it combined Telescopic technology with microscopic technology, and this projected the telescopic image onto a screen of canvas and allowed for clear magnification of far distant objects. How big unclear did this article claim it made things? It was reported that this telescope, their describing, would have a magnify cases of forty two thousand times. So this was the first of the six entries in the series and you will notice that has said almost nothing about the moon. Yet this is all set up at this point before we get to the juicy stuff. Do you want a pause forward from a sponsor? Let's do is, then we can have lacked the juicy stuff close together below. This is wrong, but
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Back to the New York. Sons account as relate to them by doktor hinder grants of the work of Sir John Herschel. The second entry that the newspaper published just the next day is where things really get cooking. So in terms of its descriptions, it relieved sort of blue things wide open if first establish the timeline of Herschel having left London on September forth of eighteen, thirty four transporting when he did this his assistance and his new lenses by ship to the cape of good hope, and that also described the. Deletion of the telescope in great detail, training about like how it was laid out how they built a foundation for it, etc. Further, establishing the credibility of the discoveries they were about to share. The New York son reported that
fateful day on which Herschel turned his telescope to the moon was January, tenth, one thousand eight hundred and thirty five at about nine hundred and thirty. In the evening And was January tenth, eighteen, thirty, five at about nine thirty. In the evening the lunar landscape has seen through this telescope and he also saw that it was covered with dark red flowers very similar to poppies this Nickel claimed was quote the first organic production of nature in a foreign world ever revealed to the eyes of men. He also recorded a lunar forest, which was then to resemble really large you trees and the astronomer observed that of the moon shifted positions. This was followed by a green plain and then a forest of fir trees and after adjusting the telescopes magnification show and his assistant realised that they also found a body of water with beautiful beaches that were full of white sand
goodbye. These green marble rocks the water appeared to be blue, just like it does on earth and also seems to experience tides yet talks at length about where they could see the tides and hit the the rocks on the edge of one side of this body of water. So, according to the information that Doctor Grant shared with the New York, son landscape observations that Doctor Herschel and his team were doing, went on for almost two hours and then asked adjusting the lenses of the telescope once more. There are often references threw out all of these these articles of how they adjusted lenses and switched things out, then they observed various crystalline structures in the landscape, and then a herd of quadrupeds was spotted, so this heard of creatures was reported to be in the shade of the forest, and
The animals appeared to be a lot like small bison, although very much smaller than any bison on earth. These creatures head and a lot of characteristics that were similar to turn terrestrial bison. There were quote semi Sir their horns, the hump on its shoulders and the depth of its due lap and the length of his shaggy hair? He also described this species is having quote workable, fleshy appendage over the eyes which spanned across the head from ear to ear. So, according to this account, Herschel is said to have guessed this flap covering the eyes. Would she the animal from the extreme variations in light and darkness that the moon would experience next in his moons wildlife discoveries were creatures that article suspects would be classified as monsters on earth. These were small goat sized species that were the color of quote: bluish lead
males, had single horns and beards and female had neither horns nor beards, but did have longer tales than the males did they frolicked around like antelopes, and they were very social creatures and their antics. According to this report were quite delightful, yet goes on at length about how they were jumping around in playing with each other and how all of the astronomers absurd, bring. This just were charmed to pieces. They were charmed by the delightful monsters, but might fall, go unicorn creatures that were blue. There were also waterbirds spied through this telescope, including pelicans in cranes being the most common These birds, rediscovered along a branching river and the astronomers watched this river for some time, hoping to get their eyes on what they suspected might be lunar fish, but they were not rewarded.
Did deduce that the fish must have been there, because the birds were seen dumping their heads in the water, seemingly as a food gathering activity. At this point and observations, the lunar atmosphere, not earth's atmosphere, became too cloudy for them to be able to see any further, and so the observers decided take a break. They were also pretty tired by that point, so that ended. The second instalment of the New York Send Series, with kind of a coup pegre. You at this point is introduced Currie, easy animal species that have been seen on the moon, but there is so much more to come. So on Thursday August. Twenty seventh of eighteen, thirty, five, the third instalment of the moon discovery Series was published. The cloudy conditions that had halted their viewing for a couple of knights cleared up on January thirteenth and at that point both be moons atmosphere and the earth or clear quote one of pearly purity and loveliness, and as the
vision of the moon relative to the telescopes location was getting ready to shift. Doktor Grant wrote that Doctor Herschel wanted to focus the entirety of evening on January thirteenth to just a few specific spots before that shift happened. There is at this point in the narrative, additional topographical descriptions of the moon landscape and these go on and on for quite some links to detail. There are mountains. There're mountains made of crystal there are active and inactive volcanoes. There are incredibly rural areas. At one point, this third instalment describes it has quote fertile to excess in one passage, So it goes on a lot about the landscape. Additional animals were identified as being different from the ones that had been cited on earlier. Viewing, including larger versions of those bison creatures, as well as numerous flocks of red and white birds.
Herschel and his team. According to this article classified thirty eight different species of lunar forest trees that night and twice that number of plants the relatively small area, where they were concentrating their observations. They also catalogued nine mammal species and five over Paris species. The mammals included beasts that look like little reindeer as well as Elk and moose and horned bears, and one that look like a bypass, Beaver Although apparently the moon Beavers had no tales, o the moon, Beaver gets talked about. A lot it was very exciting. And it also again being bipeds carried its young cradled in its arms. The same way that a human would, as it was totalling around on its head Legs and these lunar beavers also constructed huts rather than damn so there a little more archaeological architecturally advanced construction was described, as quote better.
Higher than those of many tribes of human savages and from the appearance of smoke. Nearly all of them. There is no doubt of its being acquainted with the use of fire, so if, if you do have the opportunity- which I encourage you to take to listen to the memory palace episode about this, one of my favorite parts is about these beavers. When you're reading the articles, the the Beaver part, is just hilarious to me. Yeah, because their such excitement over these bypass beavers that know how to use fire. Fell south of where these beaver type animals were see was a dense forest, where the only animal scene was this large stork like bird, not far from the thickly, with The area was the largest lake that was visible, which was estimated to be a hundred and ninety eight by two hundred and sixty six miles or three hundred and nineteen by four hundred twenty eight kilometers, the lake reportedly contained volcanic islands,
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back to these amazing volcanic islands discovered on the moon, one of the really fabulous unexciting discoveries there There were moon palm trees. These were visually almost identical to earth palm trees, except that they blossomed with bright red flowers and they did not appear to bear fruit, slick date or cocoanuts. However, terms of fruit bearing trees. There was a melon tree and there were herds of miniatures, zebras and birds that the team thought were pheasants the shore of this massive body of water were also filled with shellfish and, as this thing, entry in the series wines down? There is an attempt to describe the crystalline vista that surrounding these waters. Although the curvature of the moon and the
rotation allows for no visibility that that they can identify the end of this particular segment of landscape. So you may be thinking that the wonders described up until this point were really pretty amazing, but the fourth instalment that was printed in the New York City, I'm even more incredible. This one appeared on Friday August, twenty eighth, eighteen, thirty five and a lot of people guard it as the most sensational of the six parts of this cereal. So again, it starts as previous entries, with a lengthy description of the latest landscape that their observing, which featured bright red perpendicular mountains and long veins of what the team concluded were virgin. Gold also describe another quadrupeds species and these ones were observed to be white sheep, like beasts, but with long necks and the body is described
almost deerlike in shape, but with longer front legs. So as I was trying to visualize this, I was like it's a sheet dear giraffe in another group of animals is described. That, apparently looked exactly like sheep, exactly like sheep note no visible variation at all so obviously, sheep according to Doktor grants account that it made all of the astronomers laugh and then back to grants. Account drops the real bomb. A wholly new creature appeared in the telescopes view, and several groups of winged creatures descended from a cliff based land on an open plain, Sir John Herschel is quoted in the article is saying quote now: gentlemen: my theory is against your proofs, which you have often found a pretty even bet. We have here something worth looking at. I was confident that would, if we ever found beings and human shape, it would be in this longitude
and that they would be provided by their creator with some extraordinary powers of locomotion, first explain for my numbered d, and so when he asked for that. Strange for number d that refers to a lens that Herschel wanted to use. Two more carefully examined the scene before him, so adjustments were quickly made. The telescope thing was refocused in the team, then viewed three groups of these beings walking erect, and these do creatures were indeed similar to humans. After more focusing more adjustments, these creatures were brought into clear focus and they appeared to be about four feet or one point
You meters tall, they had copper, colored fur all over their bodies, except on their faces, and their wings were like a bat wings. Their faces were described. Ass quote a slight improvement upon that of the large or rang a tan. It's actually spelled in his as or Rank Tang, which delights me and Emma described as seeming more intelligent than be earth. Primate the orangutan NEA these bat people also had been, weird and darker hair on their heads than on the rest of their bodies, One of herschels assistance is quoted in grants, account as saying quote. They would look. Is on a parade ground, as some of the old Cockney Militia Herschel and his team observe these beings in what appeared to be impassioned conversation just gesturing to one another, just like human beings way
This species was named by Herschel as Vesper Tito homo man. Bats and the valley where they lived was named the Ruby Colosseum beneath son omitted some of the passages from the notes, at the behest of doktor, Grant, who apparently felt like those elements were best shared by Sir Herschel himself, the sun index. Did that the omitted material does quote, contain facts which would be wholly incredible to readers, who do not carefully examined the principles and capacity of the instrument with which these marvellous discoveries have been made. The newspaper also indicates that of their editorial opinion that when the entirety of this work is published by Herschel, it is going to be quote at once, the most sublime in science and the most intense in general interest that ever issued from the press.
Is where we now will equip. Hang you. The second episode of this to partner is gonna, finish off doktor grants accounts of what Herschel observed on the moon and then we'll talk about how all of this was received by the public and by other newspapers and even by Sir John Herschel himself yeah. So the first, let me more, although we ve given you, could probably the juciest of the actual fauna discoveries
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Transcript generated on 2020-03-29.